


Back Against the Wall

by saygoodbyetoyourchildhood



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Modern Era, modern!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-20
Updated: 2013-02-20
Packaged: 2017-11-29 23:50:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/692949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saygoodbyetoyourchildhood/pseuds/saygoodbyetoyourchildhood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things continue as they were.  Éponine and Courf joke, laugh, tease, fuck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back Against the Wall

It's not friends with benefits. Both Courfeyrac and Éponine insist on that. Courf says the term is tacky and Éponine maintains that labeling it would make it seem bigger than it is.

Whatever 'it' is, exactly had been going on for about two months when Grantaire, Enjolras, and Marius walk in on them. Éponine makes a hasty excuse as to why exactly Courf has his hands up her shirt.

Grantaire tells Éponine that if they can fuck sober they’re meant for each other, as that’s more than most other couples.

Marius says nothing but grins like a little girl anytime Éponine mentions Courf, and vice versa.

Enjolras takes a more forward route, sitting the two of them down and saying he doesn’t care what’s going on as long as no one gets hurts and they never interrupt a meeting.

      No one else notices. Things continue as they were. Éponine and Courf joke, laugh, tease, fuck.

It changes for him when he shows up at the bar Éponine works the night after his last exam of the year. She laughs and takes a break pulling him into the back alley and pushing against the brick. Courf kisses her lightly and quietly before putting his hands on her shoulders and pushing her back against the wall. It’s there, when he’s screwing Éponine in a dirty alley that Courf realizes he doesn’t want this to end. He doesn’t want Eponine to stop lifting the corner of her mouth in a smile and pulling him out of meetings. He wants to keep hearing her breathy gasps and feel her legs under his hands. He wants the nights where she’s too tired to make the trek back to her apartment and stays in bed with him to be every night. He doesn’t want to stop seeing her like this.

He knows Éponine doesn’t like relationships. Part of it due to her parents failed one and part of it because of the fucked up bastard she had been with last. So Courf resolves to not tell her they’re in one. He pulls her into his lap at the meetings, is the member of the Les Amis most often at the bar watching out for drunkards, and empties one of his drawers and begins to move her left-behind items into it.

She doesn’t notice any of that. She notices how good it feels walking down the street with him as their hands brush. She notices the warmth that spreads through her when they make plans to hang out, to actually hang out, not just fuck. She notices him. The way he smiles, the way he laughs, the way he reads, the way he diffuses the tension. And she memorizes it. Because as much as she wants this to last she is Éponine Thénardier and she knows it will not. 

It’s two months later and she has three drawers worth of things at Courf’s and they hold hands when they walk in the street but _no, Grantaire, shut up, we're not dating_!

Éponine likes holding his hand because he’s her friend and her friends make her feel safe. She likes to kiss him while she holds his hand because she never did that with anyone else, never was gentle, and she likes that Courf lets her be gentle. She loves that Courf lets her be gentle.

Courf is never the one to grab her hand because he likes it when she reaches for his. He loves having a connection to her that’s simpler than screwing but deeper than anyone else in the Les Amis. The fact that Éponine has warmed to casual touches is a mark of Courf’s kindness. It’s something so purely Courf that he has imparted onto her.

They begin dating and don’t realize it for a month. They gave up hiding the kissing because hell everyone already knows so damn Enjolras’s rants and just get to it when the meeting starts reaching its fourth hour. Éponine never goes home now and Courf can’t even remember she has one besides his apartment. They hold hands. They make out in the back of the theater when the movie is shit. They lie on his bed and listen to music. They act the same but everything has changed. Their grips are tighter. They touch each other’s faces when they kiss. They talk about songs and the memories they bring up or the thoughts they inspire.

One of Courf’s other classmates tells him his girlfriend is gorgeous. Courf grins and doesn’t amend the term.

One of the girls at Éponine’s shift serves Courf a drink returning to say he’s the sweetest boyfriend. Éponine smiles.

Because maybe, this time, it will last.


End file.
